Califone tonight at Bottom of the Hill

Califone is probaly Danielle and my favorite band in the world (which is really saying something, as anyone whose seen my music collection knows). They are playing tonight at Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco.

I have two standard descriptions for Califone's music:

1. Tom Waits' "Gun Street Girl" goes to art school
   
2. You find a pair of seemingly ancient cowboy boots in an anonymous thrift store. There's something compelling about them. You start to wear them obsessively. You keep figuring out new functions, bits of magic, they can do. Disappearing your enemies. Giving you control of wasps and locusts (but not honeybees). Now you always have silver coin in your pocket. Eventually, you realize they are the made from the robot snake in Blade Runner. They have a benign curse upon them. And they go with absolutely nothing, but still somehow "work".
   

You can put these guys on a bill or in a mix w/ the likes of Son Volt and Calexico, very easily. But in concert they also get into noisy, effects-laden jams that no one can wrap a box or a label around. Their renderings of halluciated (sic) blues, roots, and more precisely the roots of blues electrified. Fry the country killer in the chair and turn him into a super hero. Yup. And the lyrics are fine fine.

Want to hear free Califone mp3s from their site?

I suggest "Electric Fence" (early) in particular and "Wingbone" (recent), to represent the range and dynamics of the band.

you can also hunt up several videos on YouTube. Including a few from a week ago, at their first show of this tour

More links:

• Califone homepage
  
• Wikipedia page on Califone
  
• Thrill Jockey's page
  
• All tour dates